'Babe' author Dick King-Smith dies at 88

Best-selling children's author Dick King-Smith, whose novel "The Sheep-Pig" inspired the hit film "Babe", has died at the age of 88, his agent said on Wednesday.

The author, who began writing in his 50s, had been in poor health and died in his sleep at his home in Bath, southwest England, his agent AP Watt said on its website.

King-Smith was born and raised in Gloucestershire, and after 20 years as a farmer turned to teaching and then to writing.

He wrote more than 100 books, many featuring animals. Popular works included "The Foxbusters", "The Water Horse", "The Invisible Dog" and "Harriet's Hare".

But it was his 1983 book "Sheep-Pig", made into a film in 1995, that swept him to stardom.

In 1992 he was voted Children's Author of the Year and in 1995 won the Children's Book Award.

He was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2009 for his services to children's literature.